Intra- and inter-individual correlations between cholecystokinin and corticotropin-releasing hormone concentrations in human cerebrospinal fluid

✍ Scribed by Thomas D. Geracioti Jr.; Nosa N. Ekhator; Wendell E. Nicholson; Stephan Arndt; Peter T. Loosen; David N. Orth

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 50 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1091-4269
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6394(1999)10:2<77::aid-da7>3.0.co;2-w

✦ Synopsis

Despite strong evidence of a physiologic relationship between cholecystokinin (CCK) and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) in the rat central nervous system (CNS), evidence of such a relationship between the two hormones in the human CNS is lacking. A post hoc analysis of serial concentrations of immunoreactive CCK and CRH, obtained every ten minutes from CSF continuously collected over six hours, was performed. A total of 30 subjects were studied: 15 normal volunteers, 10 patients with major depression, and 5 recently-abstinent, alcohol-dependent patients. Overall, we observed an average intra-subject correlation of +.273 (P<0.001) between CSF CRH and CCK. Inter-subject correlations between mean CSF levels of CRH and CCK were +.948 (P=0.0001) and +.959 (P=0.005) in the depressed and abstinent alcoholic patients, respectively. These inter-individual correlations were significantly greater than that seen within the group of normal volunteers (r = + .318, n.s.). The present data suggest that interactions between CCK and CRH are significant in the human CNS, particularly perhaps in depressed and alcoholic patients, and that CSF samples may be used to assess elements of the relationship between these hormones.